Here's the first look at Musikfest's reduced-sized main stage for 2013

December 18, 2012|By John J. Moser, Of The Morning Call

The new configuration for Musikfest's Steel Stage arena that cuts 1,000 seats and gives the festival its smallest main stage venue in 13 years will remove the most distant "floor" seats and some of the bleachers, but the VIP seats and closest, costliest seats remain intact, a chart unveiled Monday shows.

The change in the size of Steel Stage, the first reduction in the main stage's size in the festival's 30-year history, was uncovered first by Lehigh Valley Music on Dec. 1.

But ArtsQuest, which runs the 10-day, downtown Bethlehem festival each August, is only unveiling how the new arena will look now, as tickets to the first two shows announced for 2013 go on sale to ArtsQuest members at 10 a.m. today, Dec. 18.

Tickets for country star and former Hootie and The Blowfish front man Darius Rucker's Aug. 9 show, at $39 and $54, and for pop sensation Carly Rae Jepson's opening-night Aug. 2 show, at $29 and $39, will be available at http://www.artsquest.org or by calling 610-332-1300.

Tickets for both shows will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Dec. 21.

The new arrangement will cut Steel Stage's capacity from 7,200 to 6,200 – a 14-percent reduction.

The new arrangement will improves sight lines by taking away areas of floor seats that fanned out at the back of the temporary arena that's built each year on the SteelStacks parking lot, said Patrick Brogan, ArtsQuest vice president for programming.

It also removes some floor and bleacher seating that was problematic because views were partially obstructed by the soundboard, Brogan said.

Removing those bleachers also widens the entrance/exit path to the arena, making for easier movement, Brogan said.

Remaining intact are the tented, VIP Steel Terrace areas on either side of the arena—one with 35 seats and another with 39. The seated "floor" areas closest to the stage also appear unchanged.

But the entire back area of "floor" seats, and those area that fanned out on either side, are gone.

That also moves the cheapest bleacher seats closer to the stage. So while there will be fewer of the least expensive seats, they'll have an even better view of the stage.

Also returning are the popular "party deck" areas atop the backs of each set of bleachers.

Musikfest has not had a smaller main stage since the last shows at its original, 5,000-seat free Kunstplatz stage at Bethlehem's Community Arts Pavilion in 1999. Musikfest opened the 6,500-capacity RiverPlace, the predecessor to Steel Stage, on Sand Island in 2000.

The cut comes as the festival has reduced costs after a 2011 season in which heavy rain doused the festival for six days, flooding the Monocacy Creek and closing nearby venues on the north side. The festival lost $750,000 -- triple the amount of its worst year since it began.

Brogan has said economics is a factor, and Steel Stage's bleachers and tract-mounted seats "come at a significantly higher cost" than the folding chairs used at Musikfest's previous main stage, RiverPlace, on Bethlehem's Sand Island.

"But so is the need to keep it a great fan experience," Brogan said earlier. "Our commitment is to ensure a great experience for our guests."

In Steel Stage's two years, it's had only two sellouts among its 20 concerts -- Maroon 5 and Steely Dan, both in 2010. Its average attendance over two years has been fewer than 4,800 -- just above the 60 percent considered profitable by industry standards.

This year, Steel Stage averaged just 4,372 people per show, and that was boosted by 2-for-1 offers, giveaways and other ticket discounts. Its two biggest shows, Boston and Daughtry, each had 6,500.

Even RiverPlace never had more than two sellouts in a single year, with its best year in 2006 when Carrie Underwood and a double bill of Styx and Kansas sold out, and two other shows came close.

Musikfest's main Kunstplatz stage was free until it added 1,500 reserved seats for a concert by Ray Charles in 1987, its fifth year. Free concerts at Kunstplatz had drawn up to 25,000 people. By the final years of Kunstplatz, its paid seating had grown to 5,000.

Brogan said the cut in Steel Stage's capacity won't greatly affect the acts it offers. He said the change leaves it in a general venue size that "doesn't make a huge difference on the size of the acts."